Dessert/5 recipes

Microwave rum cake with devil's food layers soaked in rum, apricot preserves in the middle, and fluffy Italian-style meringue frosting. Retro dessert, updated speed.

Kissing in the clouds cookies: crisp coconut and popcorn meringues with a Hershey's kiss pressed into the center. A fun, fluffy retro dessert kids love to make.

Flaky butter pastry tartlets filled with chopped apples and topped with golden melted cheddar. A sweet-savory bite-sized treat that pairs fruit and cheese in every nibble.

A spice cake mix upgraded with rolled oats, low-fat yogurt, and chopped apples, finished with a crunchy brown sugar and oat crumble topping. Bakes in one pan, ready in an hour.

Diabetic nut cookies: sugar-free drop cookies with bright orange zest, chopped nuts, and no refined sweeteners. An easy low-sugar cookie recipe for diabetes-friendly baking.

Cocoa sponge cake hearts cut from a sheet pan, dusted with powdered sugar, and plated with pools of raspberry sauce and chocolate syrup. A stunning Valentine's Day or special occasion dessert for 8.

Choose-A-Fruit Ice is a flexible fruit sorbet made with your pick of strawberries, raspberries, oranges, or mandarins blended with sugar syrup and lemon. No ice cream maker, four ingredients.

Mocha crinkle cookies with deep cocoa, instant espresso, and a surprising pinch of black pepper, rolled in powdered sugar for that signature cracked-top look. A grown-up twist on classic chocolate crinkles.

Clubwoman's Cake, a Depression-era egg-free and dairy-free chocolate cake made with vinegar and oil. A pantry-staples cake that mixes in one bowl with a fork and bakes up moist in 30 minutes.

Lilly cookies: three-ingredient cream cheese pastry folded around a dab of jam into a lily-shaped cone. A delicate, flaky cookie with limitless filling options.

Swedish butter cookies are slice-and-bake shortbread topped with browned butter frosting. Five ingredients in the dough, nutty caramelized butter on top, and the kind of crisp-edge melt that makes Christmas cookie tins worth opening.

Dark chocolate layer cake with a bright orange cream filling made with sour cream, orange zest, and lemon juice. The chocolate-meets-citrus combo is a total crowd pleaser.

No-cholesterol chocolate cake gets its tender crumb from a surprising swap: cholesterol-free mayonnaise stands in for eggs and butter. One bowl, no creaming, deep cocoa flavor with a moist tight crumb.

Pignoli cookies (pine nut macaroons): the chewy almond-paste Italian classic studded with toasted pine nuts and dusted with powdered sugar. Naturally gluten-free, dairy-free, and totally addictive.

Chocolate chip snack cake with cream cheese pockets: a no-egg, no-butter chocolate cake topped with dollops of sweetened cream cheese, chocolate chips, and walnuts. The retro depression-era "crazy cake" upgraded.

Cherry pineapple dump cake: the legendary five-ingredient potluck dessert. Dump canned fruit and yellow cake mix in a pan, dot with butter, scatter nuts, and bake. No mixing bowl required.